Verma Scans Carefully

Verma scans carefully
Through her heavily grilled front window
She will step out only if—
Only with a heavy stick.
In July, a monkey attack left her with
A mangled arm, a scratched face and a ripped ear.

This January,
Two-month-old Kajal was not so lucky.
As she slept, a monkey slipped in.
It bit her and gouged out her eye.
When her mother swung a bucket at it,
The creature smashed Kajal’s head on the floor.
The family soon moved out,
Terrified that monkeys would attack
Kajal's twin, Payal.

August 29 claimed 60 victims.
Rhesus macaques stuffed into sacks—
Clubbed to death and dumped in the fields of Basana.

The worship of Hanuman and
The feeding macaques is
A part of everyday life

People have changed.
Humans now cage themselves
In houses and offices to escape.
“I don't feed my daughter on the balcony,
I've stopped making pickle,
Drying papad, or clothes on my terrace," says Verma.

Simians too, are in cages.
Yet, the Aggressive forage in troops up to 200 strong.

The population has jumped from 2 lakh to 5 lakh.
Some live in urban areas,
Where there is food at temples,
Homes, markets and dumps.

5,000 marauding macaques
Stormed the corridors of power.
People employed larger, black-faced monkeys
To scare the macaques.
But, some determined macaques
Climbed all the way to the 17th floor.
"Seeing mean red faces in the window was terrifying," says Tanuja,
Her balcony was enclosed.
Her neighbor’s was not.

Dinesh, says 1,603 people took anti-rabies vaccines.
A two-fold increase in monkey bites from 671.

In the holy city of Vrindavan,
Residents have caged themselves
Into grilled and barred houses.
The devout had been feeding monkeys
Here for centuries
But, simian aggression has reached alarming proportions.

And, it's humans who must take the blame.

A haphazard trapping of individuals from troops led to chaotic fissioning—
Where monkeys formed units for safety.
And the subgroups required more space.

Psychologically, they changed.
Suckling youngsters separated from their mothers became depressed
While the mothers got more aggressive.
And dwindling forest cover encouraged them to move to towns,
Where abundant food would help them breed well.

Right now, the tourist haven of Shimla, is under siege from 2,000 macaques,

It will try to relocate the simians.
A public interest petition will be filed
To rid the state of monkeys.
The court will direct the government to pick up macaques from Shimla
And translocate them to jungles
Yet, the results will not be encouraging.

In 2002, when macaques were
Released in the Morni forest,
They preyed on the eggs of jungle fowl
And khaleej pheasants.
The same thing happened in Keoladeo in 2003,
Where they ate the eggs of painted storks.

In Hanuman-worshipping north India,
Tuesdays and Saturdays are bounty days
When macaques are fed.
But smart as they are,
Monkeys can't read calendars;
For them, anyone carrying food
On any day is a potential feeder.
People resisting their hungry advances
Are fair game for attack.

Meanwhile, militant political outfits
Like the Bajrang Dal,
Identify themselves with the Hanuman cult,
They make a sacred cow out of the monkey.
Joining forces with them
Are sweet, snack and fruit vendors, who say,
"Take away our monkeys and we will release pigs in dargahs."